1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of gas separation devices. More specifically, devices that use an electrochemical process to separate one gas (oxygen for example) from a mixture of gasses (air for example).
2. Background Art
In one embodiment of a gas generating system, a solid-state process is used to separates oxygen from atmospheric acid for medical or industrial uses. Such a device is called a ceramic oxygen generating system of COGS. Ceramic oxygen generating (COG) modules operate at elevated temperature. Depending on the type of material used to make the COG modules, the operating temperature can be as high as 800° C. To bring COG modules to operating temperature and keep them at that temperature, a furnace or oven is frequently used.
An inlet air flow is required to the oven. The input airflow is preferably 10 to 25 times the oxygen output flow to maintain minimum oxygen concentration inside the oven. The air input-to-oxygen output ratio depends on the recirculation of internal oven air. The better the recirculation generally correlates to a lower input/output ratio.
Most of the existing oven designs require heat exchangers to bring the inlet air temperature close to the internal oven temperature, and to recapture heat from the exhausting air stream. The oven generally has to operate at an elevated pressure in order to generate adequate flow through the heat exchanger. Ovens with heat exchangers are more complicated, more difficult to assemble, and have less air recirculation.
The present invention describes an oven that supplies input air to the COG modules using an air amplifier. Air amplifiers similar to the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,492 can amplify the air flow up to 25 times the inlet air flow.
Generally, prior art equipment is subject to the following disadvantages:                Heat exchangers required        Pressurized oven requires sealed oven        Lack of air circulation requires high input/output ratio        
Similarly, the print invention should have the following advantages:                High air circulation        Low input/output ratio        Require no heat exchanger        Oven at ambient pressure        
While the above cited references introduce and disclose a number of noteworthy advances and technological improvements within the art, none completely fulfills the specific objectives achieved by this invention.